


All Girls Have Cried Because Of Him

by CabraHawaiiana5



Series: All Girls Have Cried Because of Him [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Female Hinata Shouyou, Hinata Shouyou is Sunshine, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I resumed one and a half seasons, Light Angst, Protective Karasuno Volleyball Club, Sad Hinata Shouyou, Step-parents, Team Mom Sugawara Koushi, Volleyball, Why Did I Write This?, no beta we die like daichi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:08:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24011074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CabraHawaiiana5/pseuds/CabraHawaiiana5
Summary: During all her life, Hinata Shoyo has head from her other female classmates talk about their father. Some of them talk about them with pride, others with talk about how unfair they are.She doesn’t know what to think about it. She is able to see him sometimes, but she doesn’t know him.
Relationships: Bokuto Koutarou & Hinata Shouyou, Hinata Shouyou & Karasuno Volleyball Club, Hinata Shouyou & Kozume Kenma, Hinata Shouyou & Sugawara Koushi
Series: All Girls Have Cried Because of Him [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1738699
Comments: 24
Kudos: 391





	1. First Part

**Author's Note:**

> Why do I do this to myself?  
> Making a summary about one season and a half looked easier. And I have to to another one.

During all her life, Hinata Shoyo has head from her other female classmates talk about their father. Some of them talk about them with pride, others with talk about how unfair or how overly strict they are.

She doesn’t know what to think about it. She is able to see him sometimes, but she doesn’t know him.

Since she was young, she heard her mom talking about the man she met some years ago. From his honey brown eyes, to his favorite food and even the way he walked. This man was her father, the man who disappeared from their lives.

When she asked her mom why her father wasn’t with them, she was told that he couldn’t be with them. She was three years old and didn’t understand why, but the teary eyes from her mother didn’t gave her the courage to ask for more.

That night is the first night she hears her cry, the sound of her sobs follow her growing up. Why did he leave them?

Years pass, Hinata Shoyo is now six years old. The same year, she is able to see her father for the first time under one strong condition. She must not tell anybody who her father is. She agrees and her mother turns the TV on, the news show a man with short curly hair and honey brown eyes dressed in a formal suit talking to people. She tries to read the banner located bellow him just for her mother to read it for her.

That day, she learns that her father is a well-known growing political figure. Hinata keeps it like a secret, even if she doesn’t really understand why.

Young kids may harm other ones without noticing, but the things they say about her mom hurt. It hurts more than being pushed in the hallway or being left without a team to work with. She doesn’t understand why the parents of the kids that do that doesn’t stop them, instead they say meaner thing about her mom that her six-year-old brain couldn’t fully understand.

A few months later, she cries because of it. It’s the first time she cries because of her absent father. If he hasn’t left, she and her mom wouldn´t have to deal with others bad attitude toward them.

Almost finishing the year, her mom talks to her. She tells her about a friend she made some months ago and asks her if it’s okay for her to bring him to the house. She says yes, after all, her mother looks happier when talking about him and she deserves to be happy after all the work she does at the hospital as a nurse.

The day comes. A kind looking man enters the house holding flowers that he hands to her mom and a too long scarf for Shoyo.

He presents himself as Kato Hayate.

Dinner is nice, but Shoyo keeps looking at the man, he has neat brown hair and wears thin glasses. She likes the man, but can’t help but feel uncomfortable around him. This isn’t new to her, it happens every time she meets a male adult or teen. It’s like there is something under her skin that tells her to hide, run or stay away.

Shoyo does the best she can to ignore it.

The man comes more often and she learns more of him, he works as a middle school music teacher and also a personal tutor on the same subject. He can play many music instruments.

He even teaches her things she doesn’t understand at school and helps her to learn how to ride a bike, treating her scratched knees and elbows from each time after she fell.

Shoyo slowly starts to warm enough for him to hug her and she doesn’t feel the weird feeling, they meet his family five month after their first encounter.

All three of them travel to Niigata where the older brother of the Kato family lives with his wife. 

They arrive to the small house and are greeted by couple that took them inside. There where an older woman sitting in the couch while another man brought them something to drink, the last two in the room were entering the house from the small yard. None of the people in the room was too tall, neither intimidating, but she can’t help hiding behind her mom’s legs when the whole room turns to them.

Her mom grabs her hand that isn’t grabbing the yellow skirt and sends her an encouraging smile and she’s greeted by the Kato family: the parents with a total of four sons.

Two hours into the visit and Shoyo just sits beside her mom in complete silence. From what she has heard, the oldest of the brothers (Yuzuru, 30) works as a chef in hotel and his wife (Ayano, 28) is a zoo keeper. The second oldest (Hiigari, 28) works as dog trainer in Nagano and the youngest (Akira, 27) is a fisher in the same prefecture they are now. The old woman owns a house in Osaka from where all sons where raised until they moved out around the country.

All of them had a love for music that their mother, who used to be a musical actress, passed down to them. It's the same old lady notices her discomfort and approaches her with a kind smile. “Would you like a singing lesson?”

Shoyo, after looking at her mom for approval, accepts the offer and they go to another room where a piano at the corner. She only leaves the room when is time to eat and when they have to leave.

Back at Miyagi the Hinata's started to visit more frequently her mom’s friend that isn’t actually just a friend. The man also started to stay over their house to the point that in the small house between the mountains you could always hear the radio playing music, a habit from the Kato family, or Hayate teaching the little Hinata piano that with time turns into singing with the help of the nice-old-lady.

Between visits to Niigana and Nagano, all accompanied with music the bonds between the three of them starts to grow. Mom even took him to Tokyo to visit her parents graves like she did whith her daughter every year.

Seven months later the first visit, he comes and asks her if he could marry her mom. A few questions after, mostly about what ‘marry someone’ means and making sure he will make sure that mom is always happy, she says yes.

With the wedding many things change. Her now step-father changes his last name to ‘Hinata’ since she doesn’t want Shoyo, his now step-daughter, to lose her family name and also last bond with the only family side she still has, her maternal one that consist only in her mother.

The other change is the new wisterias that grow in their garden due to the Kato family saying they will protect their home from evil.

During this date she changes from school half way through second grade and makes two friends, Koji and Izumi, both male, but she doesn’t feel bad near them. It takes some time and help from others but they build a really nice friendship that consist in talking, running around, playing sports and sleepovers.

In a year or so later, they tell her that she will be a big sister. Of course, she’s exited. She’s nine and the news of being a big sister almost makes her forget about her own father.

After Hinata Natsu is born the first day of autumn, Shoyo feels like that man is everywhere. She tries to ignore that feeling by taking care of her baby sister that has the same bright orange hair that her mom and herself are proud of.

She ignores by doing the best thing she could, play any sports. She´s a very active kid and loves playing soccer, baseball and basketball with Izumi and Koji after school or at the park when they could.

One rainy autumn day, both Hinata and her step-father are left alone as mom and Natsu go to the store. Shoyo didn’t want to leave the house since she was feeling particularly distressed. She couldn’t even step out of the house to run through the huge garden they own. The girl just seats in the living room, trying to look as calm as she could and failing since she shifts her position every three second. A tap in her shoulder makes her jump and the man was smiling at her with his guitar in his hand.

“Would you like to learn how to play?”

They stayed at the room until Natsu arrived and had to take her nap. Shoyo felt better and from that day they played for a while before dinner or when her feeling her kind of messy.

As years go by, it’s harder to not wonder why her biological father isn’t with her. When she’s eleven and her mother is the only one besides her at their home, she asks why.

Tears go everywhere as her mom tells her about the man that was aiming to become a powerful politician, he was a few years older than her and met while she was preparing for her last year at university. They quickly fell in love, he helped her get back on her feet after her parent died on a car crash when she was and after three months of being together her mom found herself pregnant. She hears as her mom told her of how scared she was of telling him and when she finally went to tell him, she found out that she was already engaged with another woman. Still, she told him about the pregnancy. She received a handful of insults from both the woman and her boyfriend at the time.

She left Tokyo after graduating, which was few months after she gave birth, to live at the house between the mountains of Miyagi owned by her late great-grandparents and decided to raise the baby alone after she received by mail a letter stating a disturbing message.

If the kid appears in his life, it would end in its death.

That night was the second time Hinata Shoyo cried, for her father she was like an object that he could throw away like nothing and scared of the tought they could meet that would be her death statement.

After hearing the story about her father, Shoyo felt horrible. Her only two friends noticed it and decided to go out and play in an attempt to help her clear her thoughts. That same day, she felt in love with volleyball after watching a match of the high school nationals.

She told her mom about if and the next day her step father arrived home with a ball and knee pads. He usually helped her practice along with Koji and Izumi, sometimes her mom joined in.

Middle school came and with it new people. Hinata stayed with her two friends the most she could until they joined a club. Some weeks later, the two boys had new friends with the people from their respective clubs and classmates. A few of them, only two, became good friends of her.

Her first year consists of her ocationaly joining voleyball practices, playing sports with her friends and learning more music. This continues until she finally, half way through her second year, she decided to join the school volleyball club. She didn’t join earlier due to them sharing the gym with boys.

During the time she spent there, she learnt more, the club had its’ good and bad things. It was good to play volleyball with people that could teach her new things, but she still felt uneasy because they shared the gym with the boys’ basketball team. She was glad that Izumi was there, it somehow helped her.

She also listened to the others girls talk about their fathers and even met some of them when they came to pick their daughters from school when practice run into the night. When they had training during the weekends or a rare training camp, she avoided talking the most she could in fear of the topic of fathers coming.

Puberty was starting to show in her, with that came a difficult period.

Hinata was starting to look more like her father. Actually, the only thing that she took from her mom was her bright orange hair and big almond shaped eyes. Looking at the mirror while she was tying her hair up, she realized that their eyes were the same color, her face had a very similar shape, also her nose. Both of them had curly hair, and thin lips.

She looked to similar to him and hated it. She cried again for her father, the man that abandoned her and she still looked like him.

From that day, she lets her bangs grow slightly longer to hide her brown eyes, only showing them for play her beloved volleyball.

Volleyball makes her forget about her father.

Middle school was over before she knew about it. In those three years she managed to make two new friend, also male. Somehow, she never made to many female friends inside and outside the team, maybe it was because she divided her time with people she was already friends with, practicing volleyball or playing some instrument. 

Third year was exiting and stressful, the captain of the team had announced that they were joining a tournament.

The news made the whole team and families exited. Between training and studying for the entrance exam, the tournament was already here.

People watched as the girls form an unknown school beat their first opponent in the court. Koji and Izumi decided to go see and cheer on Shoyo.

Hinata was playing as wing spiker, she´s wearing number one due to messing up the sizes of the shirts and numbers, and jumped her height and more to spike the ball. The nerves made her fail the landing and crashed against the barrier.

At the end of the match, her body hurt but was happy to play. Their second match ran long and finished playing a third set that they ended un loosing, but they all left to watch the other teams play.

Sadly, she had to meet with the King of the Court who said some really hurtful things. Her two friend arrived half way through the monologue of lack of skills of the black haired guy, they dragged her to the entrance where they waited for the rest of the girls.

The Kitagawa Daiichi volleyball team walked out the doors and Hinata, in an act of pure boldness aused by anger decided to say him something.

“I will show you wrong.”

After graduation, Koji and Izumi went to another high school, along with most of her friends. Shoyo was leaving to Karasuno.

A few weeks before school starts, her mom tells her that she will be part of the male volleyball team.

Apparently, they talked about it to the captain of the team, along with the head of the school and others to make sure that it was alright for her to join and participate of the event the sport has such as training camps and tournaments.

Her step dad and her mom thought it would help her to get over the uncomfortableness that rushes over her when meeting a boy while doing something she likes.

She thinks that it is a horrible idea but keeps quiet to avoid an argument since she doesn’t like to argue with her mom and make Natsu sad.

When the day comes, she wears her school uniform along with the sports uniform pants (a habit she has since she was a toddler), thirty minutes later after a bike ride through the mountain and she´s already at Karasuno.

She finds her class and finds out one of her classmates was a friend from middle school, Acchan, both like music so after the first awkward minutes they became friends.As soon as classes are over, she runs to the gym they were told that was used for volleyball, after avoiding all of the seniors promoting their clubs she arrives to the second gymnasium.

She opens the door to find a familiar dark haired teen lifting a ball in the air. They look at each other and the ball lands on his head.

She wants to run but swallow her feeling down as the teen walks over her and she fights the need to hide since he’s much taller than her. As the boy towers her with his height, Hinata feels brave enough to glare at him.

Kageyama Tobio. Apparently he´s bad attitude still stuck with him after all these months.

New voices appear and three new people walk inside the gym wearing black sports uniform. Two of them look normal, the other one has a fierce expression in his face. He tries to walk to Kageyama but the one with brown hair stops him by grabbing him from the back of the collar. They start to talk the boy, leaving her at the background. She just stands were she is and plays with the bracelet Natsu gave her a good luck charm.

Kageyama Tobio is a serious person, she would have thought that if it wasn’t his fault that they gave the captain a new look with the vice heads’ toupee who was there to check on Shoyo. That got them both grounded out of the gym. It was weird for Hinata to lose her cool around males as this usually attracts unwanted attention, but Kageyama knew how to get to her nerves.

Talking about the captain, Sawamura Daichi, was scary when angry, but a good person in general. He demonstrated to be serious and was easy to depend on him during both practice and matches.

Sugawara was very kind. He was the first to win her trust in the team and helped her practice for the three V/S three, even if that got him in trouble if they got caught.

Tanaka was loud and funny, also kind impulsive. He was kind enough to wake up early for Hinata and Kageyama to practice. She almost doesn’t care when he picks on her because of her height (150.3cm isn’t that short!).

At one point, she met the manager of the team, Shimizu Kiyoko. They shared small talks between practice, a few when they saw each other at lunch and shared a smile. She was also the reason she was able to attend future training camps or other activities that made her be outside from her house at night.

Meeting Tsukishima is very different. They guy is a jerk, Hinata doesn’t like him. Call her immature, but his personality was awful. He was like a French fry: tall, blonde and even saltier than she could think about.

Yamaguchi was too nice to be friends with people like him.

Takeda-sensei is a kind, clumsy hardworking man almost impossible to dislike. He’s aware of her situation, but doesn’t know who her father is.

In fact, only four people know: Mom, step dad, biological father and herself. They decided to not tell Natsu who her sisters’ father was until a bit older.

Not to long after the three V/S three, they got the team jacket and Takeda- sensei announces they will be having a practice match against Aoba Johsai, a power house school.

Since the announcement, Hinata Shoyo is a walking mess of nerves. She´s so nervous she can’t even sleep the night previous, Natsu complains about the noise and tells her to ‘Shut up!’. It isn’t a surprise that in the morning she looks half dead and they almost have to drive her to school.

In the way to the school, nerves take over Hinata, she will be surrounded by teenager males until the match ends, not to mention she will be playing as a titular since the weird quick attack she and Kageyama can do. She ends un vomiting over Tanaka and she feels so bad and embarrassed to make this to someone who cared for her.

The fact that he isn’t even angry at her makes her feel even worse.

As soon as they enter the gym, she starts to feel nervous again and leaves to the bathroom, also changing as she´s there. When she comes back she meets with one of Kageyamas’ ex-teammates that make her even more nervous because:

  1. He´s a male.
  2. Warns her of the setter bad character when someone doesn’t match his tosses.



So when she comes back, she´s even more nervous than before. But at least she´s wearing her clothes correctly.

As soon as Shimizu tells her that she expects a lot from her, she’s ready to leave and die because she doesn’t want to leave the team down. This leads her to actually ruin the first set. The cherry on top is when she basically gifts the last point as she serves the ball into Kageyamas’ head. That must have been the most terrifying thing in her life until that day, the fact that Tanaka and Tsukishima laugh at it as the black haired teen looks ready to kill her, instead, yells her to go back to normal. Tanaka actually tells her to concentrate in the people at her same side of the court since they are a team that will help and protect each other when they need, that makes her think he’s really cool!

The second set goes well and they win it, she acts kind of childish here and there but she enjoys playing since she got over the horrible nerves, even when the ball hits her face or Kageyama it’s getting angry at her. Right after the set ends, Oikawa Tooru (‘The Great King’ for Hinata) arrives. At the end of the third one they go against the rival captain serve that takes two points after he uses less strength for the third serve.

Hinata scores the last point and is able to do it with her eyes open.

When they leave, she doesn’t know that schools’ team enough for her make an opinion to them, but she neither feels good or bad around them (except Tsukishima, she still doesn’t like him at all).

Sawamura declares that Karasuno's Guardian Deity is coming back after being suspended for a week and not being allowed to participate in school activates for a month.

Hinata is also declared the greatest decoy.

On their walk they share they talk about that and tell Hinata to call him ‘senpai’. She doesn’t understand why she’s being told this.

Nishinoya Yuu arrives the next morning, he enters the gym and perfectly receives one of the serves Kageyama. He could have made a better impression of himself if he didn’t call Shoyo short.

He’s friendly and loud as Tanaka. He exits the gym so angry as soon as he heard that Asahi hasn’t come back.

Gathering courage, she goes after him and asks him to teach her how to receive. She follows the captains’ words and calls him senpai, which make him accept her request, but he won’t be coming back to the club and offers to buy her ice cream after school.

Back at the gym after afternoon practice, she asks who Asahi is.

The next morning, both Kageyama and her are standing in front of class 3-3. She’s nervous and really regrets coming here, her wish to meet the ace is bigger so she stands near the door.

Azumane Asahi stands tall before her and she hides behind Sugawara that is also there for some reason.

Asahi as the ace who got blocked every time in one match and doesn’t want to leave the team down again. At practice, Takeda-sensei announces a practice match against Nekoma, the old rival of Karasuno, during the last day of the Golden Week.

The topic of the ace comes again and the gym has that weird atmosphere live the previous times. She doesn’t like this and decides to talk to Azumane again.

That afternoon, coach Ukai arrives and organizes a last minute match against the Neighborhood Association team. All of them were adults and Shoyo was practically shaking in her place as her chest was starting to feel tight.

When she took a look at the window, she notices Asahi and joined the other team along with Nishinoya and Sugawara.

The match started off well, she kept her wish to run and kept playing. It all goes good until she attempts to block Azumane. Somehow, this makes it harder for Hinata to concentrate in keeping a normal act and she starts to lose focus, making her play clumsier.

She’s so focused into keeping calm that she doesn’t notice the ball going into her direction until it’s too late and she’s flying back from the force applied into the hit. She hears horrified screams and steps of people going in her direction. She covers her forehead and closes her eyes. She tries to take deep breaths but it catches itself in her throat. She’s able to hear Tsukishima deadpan comment of being her fault as she seats down and uses her hand to cover her eyes as she continues to try to get oxygen into her lungs, Shimizu brings her water bottle which fells nice and cold against the bump on her head and gives her a sensation to focus on.

It takes her a minute to be back at her feet and the game continues. Kageyama actually gives her decent advice after the incident that would have been good if he was not screaming at her:

“If you can’t face your problems now, look at them for another side and dodge until you are ready to face them!”

When the match ends with the club losing, Hinata is friends with Azumane Asahi. She also learns that he´s just a huge softie.

The next morning, they head to the facility where they will be staying the week before the match against Nekoma.

Shimizu decides to stay over even if she lives nearby. She doesn’t want to leave Hinata as the only female surrounded by men and Shoyo is really grateful.

As they prepare for sleep, they talk about trivial things. The topic of family comes; she learns that Kiyokos’ dad arrives home late because of work, when the question about hers comes she tells her about her stepfather who she calls by his given name.

The other girl didn’t ask about her biological father and she likes her even more.

She was lost. After a competition with Kageyama, she may have run more than expected. Looking around, she notices a boy with a red jersey playing with his phone. She takes the opportunity to talk to him since he looks lost.

He is Kozume Kenma and plays setter. They talk a little, even if it’s just her trying to do so and him answering short sentences in the best cases. A taller male comes to take the lost boy with him, after they leave Sugawara comes looking for her.

She meets the teen again a few days later, his time both wearing their team uniforms. Both of them look surprise, specially her. After the teams greet each other, Hinata runs to talk to Kenma.

“Y-y-you’re from Nekoma?!”

“Oh, yeah.” He looked at the floor.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You didn’t ask.” Two guys stand near the door, looking at them. “And you play with the boys’ team?”

**“** Hey, what do you want with our setter?” A guy with a blonde mohican stands behind Kenma, he has an intimidation aura that makes her jump and want to hide.

She takes some steps back and bumps into Tanaka who also has an intimidating aura. “What do you want from our first year? Huh?”

The two boys start a staring contest until Sugawara comes to stop Tanaka and one of the shortest guy comes for Mohican guy. Both of them apologize from their teammate antics.

“Shoyo, please go change for the match.” Kiyoko told her, claiming the mohican guy attention and the two other boys from Nekoma who high-five.

As Hinata sees this, Kageyama asks her why he knows someone from the other team. As soon as he learns that he’s a setter, his aura turns competitive.

After entering the gymnasium where they are going to play, all players go to change into their respective team jersey. Unlike the guys one, hers is a little modified by making the sleeves shorter and the shorts a bit tighter to prevent it from going too up when she jumps.

The match is played and Nekoma gets a total win, during the game she really enjoys the feeling of Inuoka, number seven, chasing to block her and even enjoys it when he manages to do so.

After the match she befriend Inuoka, he’s kind and shares the ‘strange’ communication skill based of sounds and jumps.

When saying goodbye, Tanaka and Taketora are friends. She feels brave enough to give her number to Kenma and Inuoka so she can keep talking with them.

Her sunshine self, the one she shows to her family, comes alive a little bit more with each day she spends with the team. She starts to push her bangs back all day, showing her bright eyes to the world.

The Interhigh come, as they enter the stadium they are playing she feels the other teams’ comments. They talk about Kageyama and Nishinoya, mostly about their skills, Asahi is mentioned as a delinquent that has been in high school five years.

They meet with Dateko and the tall guy with no eyebrows makes Hinata want to hide, she actually does it when he points at Asahi.

As she stands in front of the net, she feels the odd looks from the outside of the court as the referee gives the notice of a girl playing to the other team. Maybe from the ones that didn’t know about the girl joining a male team until the match begins.

The set starts and the questioning looks stop as she jumps to spike. The stares change from confusion to surprise.

They win and go to play against Dateko.

The match is difficult; Hinata definitely shuts down strange stares directed to her after performing the weird quick attack and the Iron Wall keeps up to its’ name. When the match ends with Karasuno winning, Aone and her had formed a strange friendship.

The next day, they lose against Aoba Johsai. It was a hard hit for the team, but life must go on and if they want to win they need to get stronger.

Days after the match, Shoyo turns sixteen and the whole Kato family arrives to Miyagi. Since all of them love music it doesn’t surprise that the day ends up as a concert or a fight over the radio.

Karasuno is invited to a training camp at Tokyo but to attend they first need to pass their exams.

Shoyo is a tops student when it comes to sports and music classes, she is barely an average student when it comes to other classes and specially sucks in English, so along with Kageyama, Nishinoya and Tanaka, they panic.

Days later after the announcement to Tokyo, Hinata finds Shimizu walking down the hallways outside her classroom. She can feel the stares the students are giving them when the third year asks if she knows someone that doesn’t belong to a club.

As a result of this, Kiyoko brings Yachi, a shy girl that is really nervous and doesn’t know if she wants to join the club because of fear that her mother may disapprove her decision. She still helps her and Kageyama study.

Both girls form a friendship and after a little help from Hinata, she talks with her mother and joins the team.

Her first task is to create a poster and Shoyo is the one on it. She’s kind of embarrassed and exited. After talking to the school, it’s all done and the poster is ready (she isn’t sure why her and not one of the boys).

At their study date at Yachi’s apartment, she and Kageyama meet Ushijima who was jogging when they left the building, after they follow him to Shiratorizawa and Hinata may have declared that they will defeat them on court as the Spring Tournament comes. 

The morning of the exams, Shoyo is eating her breakfast with her family. The TV shows the morning news like every other morning, she reads the notes Yachi told her to focus.

When the reporter changes to politics, the name of the newest Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications. She freezes in her reading as the man talks about the newest project of the government is working on. She comes back to herself and finishes eating, she leaves the house to school. The thirty-minute ride to school that she normally enjoys is blocked as the only thing that she hears is the voice of their biological father talking about the importance of responsibility.

During her test, her head keeps coming in and out of reality and the words she hears earlier from the man smiling at the cameras.

When results come she is surprised that she only failed one exam. Yachi looks at her test and cries over the misplaced answers that could have given her a perfect score.

Thanks to Tanaka and his sister, they are on the road towards Tokyo after they take they supplementary exam. As Kageyama sleeps at the back, both girls talk and Hinata takes her school uniform off since she’s wearing sports clothes under.

Saeko talks about family funny stories that her brother wouldn’t like to be told. They arrive at noon; the sun is setting but they can play one set that they win.

Hinata doesn’t miss that the quick attack was touched by their opponent.

Night comes and she decides to walk through the building. Suddenly, a door opens and she is now facing the new player from Nekoma who is very tall, he promises that he will block her attack when they play against each other. She goes to the managers’ room with the other girls and sleeps almost instantly.

The next day, he does block her.

She also collides with Asahi and begs for his forgiveness, she’s scolded by the coach.

She needs to get better, and the way to achieve that is to start watching the ball when spiking, going against to what they have been doing.Neither Kageyama or the coach or Sugawara thinks that she should, but she wants to get better, she needs to feel improvement. She is being left behind again but this time from people she really likes and cares about. The coach takes her out of the court for their next match, she watches from the side everything with attention in an attempt to ignore the growing frustration inside her.

On their way home she sits alone, earbuds in and thinks on the things she sees to keep her feelings hidden, hoping she could do it until she arrives home.

She couldn’t keep it inside her, her frustration blew out in the gym when practicing with Kageyama. They fought, neither of them caring about their surroundings as they screamed at each other with fist and legs colliding against their bodies.

Tanaka had to hit them both for them to stop it.

She walked home with Yachi until her bus stop, after that she cried while she rode her bike back home. 

Already home, her mom had gone shopping with Natsu, so her step father hugged her until she stopped crying and didn’t ask for explanations. She was grateful for that and helped her apply medicine in purple mark forming in her face and arms before covering it.

The next days are covered with individual training, each one works on different areas, Hinata goes with Ukais’ grandfather and practices with other people. She and Kageyama haven’t talked since their fight.

They go back to Tokyo two weeks after their first trip. She talks with Kenma and then Lev joins, she isn’t very comfortable with Lev but she’s working on it.

Their first match is a mess since they haven’t played together for a while. At the end of the day, the team is dead tired after running all day because they lost all of their matches. Still, they practice more.

After their second day, Shoyo feels like she lost weight from so much running. The third day comes and Hinata and Kageyama still don’t talk and their attack attempts fail.

Actually, her attacks are the ones that fail while the others work. She doesn’t bother on hiding her frustration this time.

She shouts at Kageyama the next time he tosses the ball in her direction, surprising the team as she declares the change of the toss. Kageyama grabs her shirt and Tanaka has to pull her apart from Kageyama before the fight again. Actually, he only has to grab Hinata because Kageyama looks horrified.

The day ends with Hinata not spiking a good ball. She asks Kenma for some tosses but he runs after the fifth one, so she goes to ask to gym three. They finish their practice and head to dinner, the girls decide to sit together so Hinata joins. The teachers where listening to the news not too far from them.

When bed time comes, all the girls sit to talk about what comes to their minds. These included skin care, hair care, food, hobbies and other stuff.

Yukie enjoys going out to eat in different restaurants, Kaori likes to interact with people near her, Eri is really good at looking after plants, Mako prefers to play board games. Kiyoko usually goes to run during free days and Yachi usually is doing something related to drawing.

They are all kind of surprised after Shoyo told them she can play four different instruments.

Next morning nothing special occurs, before dinner she practiced with the usual third gym guys and learned some volleyball from Bokuto-san.

The last day comes and it’s actually a good day. They lost their matches as usual, but at least Kageyama and her performed their new attack during the last one. The faint is a good attack that surprised both her team and rivals.

Lunch comes and she makes social life, Bokuto never makes her feel uncomfortable and they actually have a good time talking with Lev and Kenma, besides the rest of Karasuno and managers.

Right before they leave, Kuroo stops her when the teams are saying goodbye. He asks the question many had but nobody dared to ask.

“Chibi-chan, why do you play with the boys’ team if Karasuno has a girls’ volleyball team?”

She stops to think, maybe she should tell them. From the other side, she doesn’t think she could avoid the question or lie. She’s a terrible liar.

A half true is then, she doesn’t tell the whole story.

“Childhood stuff.” She whispers with a shy smile, quickly noticing the confused looks she proceeded to explain a bit more. “It’s related to bulling, people made fun of me and insulted my mom because my father left her.”

She can see the managers, coaches and team players tense at her answer. She feels the stares from her team besides her when suddenly Tanaka and Nishinoya are crying along with Yamamoto. 

“Shoyo, you are so strong!”

“Hinata! That must have been so hard!”

“It’s a lot better now, my step father helped me a lot before.” She interrupts Yamamoto before he could even say something. Her last statement brought even more tears to her teammates eyes who hugged now hugged her, Yamamoto didn’t hug her because Kuroo was grabbing him by the shirt.

“Your mom must have been really strong to let someone else into her heart.” Tanaka didn’t even talk, he was just hugging his kohai, she was just standing really confused and patted the two second years backs in a very awkward way. Hopefully Takeda-sensei calls them.

Back at Miyagi, the team start to prepare for the spring tournament.

The tournament begins and before the match the team is a mess again.

Also, a guy from the team they are playing against confuses her for a young little sister coming to see her brother play.

_Wonderful._

They win the match and go against the team that has the taller person Shoyo has seen in her life (201.2cm!).

After they win, Asahi lifts her up, she laughs and Yachi takes a picture of the moment with the camera she brought. Later, Sugawara asks her to send him the picture.


	2. Second Part

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She was happy, so happy she forgot of how sad it could be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's 5:15am and I haven't slept because I need to post this. Tell me the mistakes found.

Shoyo being happy doesn’t last long.

Minutes ago, she ran to the gym after realizing that she forgot her lunch box there. Once she arrives, she sees Kiyoko being bothered by some teens that continue to ask for her number, the older girl holds her bento as she tries to free herself from the bothersome boys.

Why didn’t she bring with her Noya or Tanaka or any of the boys? (Except for Yamaguchi, he doesn’t look like the intimidation type).

The guys that flirt and continue to insist after being rejected are the ones that make Hinata the most uncomfortable. She can’t leave Shimizu like that, after watching the blond guy trying to grab her to stop her from going away, she steps in. While shaking, she begins to push her senior to the exit. Her body freezes as the blond guy grabs her from the back of her t-shirt and throws her to the side and continues to try to get Shimizus’ number.

Almost immediately, she jumps between them. This time she gets the attention of both guys.

The first thing the blond notices from her is her uniform from Karasuno and confuses her as a manager. She corrects him, she’s a proud player from Karasuno. From the corner of her eye, she sees Kiyoko running to the exit.

‘Please get someone here fast’. Is all she can’t think about as both guys talk to her. Two minutes is all that takes to Nishinoya and Tanaka to appear, both looking ready to beat someone up. Shimizu thanks her and they head back to school.

The following two months are full of training, they even had two more opportunities to go to Tokyo. This time, the team is in a good mood and the matches become longer.

On their second trip, Kenma confesses her his wish to have an actual match against them. She’s obviously exited of this news.

Sadly, that same night, the long lasting good mood of Hinata is over.

Thing go bad at an amazing speed.

It all starts because of a portable TV Shinzens’ coach brought to dinner. It has to be her luck; the only night the TV is brought has to be the same night her father has to be interviewed. The past times this has happened to her, she is able to hold tears back, but seeing his face after months actually hits her. Kenma, who is sitting in front of her, stops eating and stares at her with shock in his face.

She feels tears running down her cheeks at that moment. She stands from her chair with the excuse of going to the bathroom. On her way to the door, the painful sob that she fought to keep inside leaves her mouth when she is three steps outside the room. The cafeteria seems to go quiet at that moment and tears start to fall with much force.

She hates so much the fact that she ran out of the room with everyone else looking at her.

Inside the room, everyone is shocked so much that thy stay quiet for a minute before Sugwara decides to move and leaves to search for her kouhai. Daichi makes the rest of the team and the girls’ friend stay to avoid overwhelming the short middle blocker.

Shoyo is sitting somewhere near the closed gyms when Sugawara finds her. With her knees pressed against her chest, she makes her body look as small as possible. He begins to talk to her from whatever comes to his mind, stories from last year and lame jokes Noya told Asahi. Minutes pass and Hinata talks to him.

“Can I tell you a secret?” Is all she says while looking him with the most serious expression he had seen his kouhai make. He nods and after a warning from the girl that makes him promise to not talk about it, she tells him everything.

Her father and who he is, how heartbroken her mom was, her memories from her childhood and the pain that brings her to even hear the mans’ voice or name, she only keeps quiet about the dead threat. He hears all of it quiet until she’s over. He ruffles her bright orange hair, making it poof and Hinata smile.

They talk for a while before heading back to the main building.

After that talk with Sugawara she feels so much better, after all, the senior is someone who she really trusts.

The most difficult thing to do is to explain to the rest of the team that yes, she’s fine and no, they don’t need to kill anybody (because it’s just not worthy). She only has been really nervous because of the coming matches back at Miyagi, as the only girl on the tournament she’s afraid that they lose because she misses something like against Aoba Johsai.

Sugawara lied for her to avoid getting caught.

Kageyama yells at her for making him worry, Tanaka and Nishinoya jump to hug her while Tsukishima leaves to sleep looking annoyed. The other second years along with Yamaguchi and Asahi give her an encouraging smile. Coach Ukai and Takeda-sensei look much calmer as Daichi gives her a soft pat at the back. After asking where Yachi and Shimizu are, she starts walking to the kitchen where the managers are cleaning up dirty dishes.

Tanaka volunteers to give Shoyo a piggyback ride there. The sound of her laugh can be hearth through the hallways as Tanaka runs with her at his back.

On their way to the kitchen, they found Bokuto-san talking with Kuroo, Kenma is sitting next to them playing videogames. They all look at a Hinata who shines with happiness. Almost immediately, they all are asking if anything is wrong, Bokuto asks if she needs them to beat someone up. Tanaka ends explaining the situation to them, their way to the kitchen turns to be even funnier since the other boys joined.

Her stay at the kitchen is kind of long. Yachi hugs her when she sees her fly through the door. Shimizu asks her if she’s fine and Tanaka talks for her again. The boys leave as Hinata is handed some food since she didn’t finish her dinner. At the end, they all go together to sleep. Next morning, Inuoka and Lev go to ask her if she’s fine. She smiles at them and everyone in the gym relaxed.

Her outburst surprised everyone a little too much.

The tournament begins again, Shoyo has the luck to meet the same blonde guy that bothered Kiyoko and her after the matches. He has the courage to ask the senior girl for her number. Nishinoya and Tanaka almost jump to the boy if it weren’t by the girl wearing the same yellow sportswear the others do.

She’s on the way to where the team is waiting for the match to start, she hops on the hallways when she hears a familiar voice. The Great King and the ace from Seijoh are standing in front of her, the setter has an intimidating voice and attitude towards her; she tries to run away only to collide against Ushijima. As she stands between them, passing out seems like a really good idea.

Thankfully, Aone arrives and Hinata is out of that situation as they say hello and the atmosphere is more friendly.

The matches began, Johzenji turns out to be a much energetic team that they expected, but it really messes up some plays.

During the first match of the second day, Tanaka kills Daichi.

He doesn’t die, but he has lo leave because of the really ugly collision with Tanaka. One of his teeth actually dies (or falls, whatever). Ennoshita assumes the position as the captain during the match, he does a good job and they win.

After Sawamura arrives, Sugawara punches him.

Aoba Johsai wins against Dateko, their next opponent is decided. The semifinals are happening now.

Things go bad before the match; the team is very tense. They manage to calm during the warm up, the fight between Oikawa and Kageyama it’s really funny since it was really childish for high school students. Mad Dog is scary, like his nickname says, he’s very aggressive. The match is very intense, just like their last one.

The first set goes to Karasuno.

During the second set, she enjoys cheering for Yamaguchi with the rest of the team when it’s his time to serve.

Sugawara has to grab her to avoid running her for running to him, the same with Noya being grabbed by Ennoshita.

The game continues, Seijoh wins the second set.

The third one is very intense; they win the match.

As the team gathers, they call for the libero and her. She does something that she couldn’t do months ago; she launches herself against the team along with Nishinoya, sending them all to the ground. She laughs, ignoring the angry screams of Kageyama and Tanaka. She’s so happy.

When the team arrives to school, they are received by their teachers and classmates, they cheer and promise to go to the match.

Back at home, she’s tacked by Natsu like every day she arrives home from a match.

The next day, they arrive and are greeted by part of the female volleyball club. Their captain gives Sawamura a victory charm for the team.

Inside there’s more people from Shiratorizawa, Karasuno and even TV cameras.

What surprises the most are that Izumi and Koji came too. She turns around and gives them a huge smile that reaches her eyes, shaking with happiness. Tanaka looks at her, she presents them as her closest friends she could make before Karasuno. Their talk is short as Kageyama calls for her to hurry up. Both of her friends are surprised of seeing the black haired in the same team as her.

“You are jealous that I actually have friends.” She says, making the setter angry.

Deeping into the building, the third years freeze as they spot an older man, they recognize him from their matches during their first year. As he leaves, Asahi recognizes another familiar person.

“Hinata-sensei?!” He yells, looking near the windows. The rest of the group is confused and look to the direction the ace is watching. Shoyo sees her stepfather walking to her senior. The man gives him a friendly pat at the back as he says hello. The team looks confused as both make a small talk. When he’s ready with Azumane, he turns to look into Shoyo’s direction.

“Shoyo, do your best.” He says with his signature kind smile. She smiles back.

Some of them already start to realize their connection. Others (Nishinoya, Tanaka and Kageyama) looks confused. Coach Ukai interrupts their talk about Natsu wanting to come but she had a test while her mom had a last minute meeting. The man presents himself as Hinata Hayate, Shoyo’s stepfather.

Before their warm up, they are able to see the rest of their schoolmates cheering for the, along the Vice Principal that must have forgiven them for making his wig fly. The ones from the Neighborhood Association had made their own cheer group with store owners near the school and some kids. Izumi and Koji sit at the front row with Hayate near them. They only stand a while calm before they she goes into terrible nerves along with Asahi and Yamaguchi, even Nishinoya is at the floor because he finds so unfair that Shiratorizawa has cheerleaders. Tanaka tells him that they have Kiyoko by their side.

Shiratorizawa decides to join them fashionably late, after their warm up Shoyo is already calm. Actually, she is exited.

Following Tanaka’s recommendation, Hinata spikes the ball down like in the match against Seijoh.

After presenting the teams and making the official announcement of Hinata playing in a male team as a girl the match begins and the first point goes to Shiratorizawa. Two points after, Sugawara screams at the player on the court. After the initial shock, Shoyo grabs his arm to gain his attention on a failed attempt to make him stop.

Two points later, their first score is made by Tanaka. They still end up losing the first set.

The second set looks good for them if they ignore Tendo blocking their spikes. They win this one.

The third one goes without much happening, apart from Nishinoya being super pissed off after the victory point Ushiwaka scores that sends the libero to the ground.

The fourth goes to Karasuno (29-27, that was close) and Hinata finds herself nearly exhausted, jumping and running during the whole set was hard.

During the fifth and last set many things happened: Tsukishima gets hurt and Hinata starts to receive with her face (the funny thing here is that she moves it to escape getting her nose hurt, but only to avoid bleeding and get herself out of the court), the fight between cheers, her strange block/reception, more face receives and Tsukishima comes back.

They win.

Screams fill the court and tears mix between, the three seniors hug as Kageyama and Shoyo are squished in a hug by Tanaka, Tsukishima actually disappears as he’s tacked to the floor by Noya.

After the award ceremony, the team exist the court and meet their friends and family outside.

Shoyo is tired but happy, so happy that she does something that she had never done. As she spots his stepfather, she launches herself and gives the man a tight hug. The same goes to Koji and Izumi. Both boys look surprised and blush a little as Hinata pulled away, smiling.

Back to school, her classmates talk to her about the team going to the nationals.

She gets a little annoyed as they first confuse her for a manager, after she corrects that she’s actually a player but instead they ask her if she’s with them because she has a crush on one of the boys. The idea is actually ridiculous since after spending so much time with the team makes her impossible to think of dating any of them (and she’s scared of dating with all the issues her father left her after that letter).

November starts with the news of the school festival and her class is making a concert with original songs written by her, during the weeks previous to this she barely sleeps. Between volleyball practice, writing five different songs in different instrument and teaching them to the rest of the band they formed to present (three other boys, just her luck), she barely sleeps but somehow manages to make it happen two days before the festival and takes a good night of sleep.

The day of the presentation she’s surprised by volleyball of different schools and some of the coaches. This time, her mom goes to see her since Hayate had a private class and Natsu has a birthday party.

At the end, the concerts ended well and her mind is able to go back into volleyball.

The team measures their new height, Shoyo is happy to hear that she has grown 1.4 cm (she’s 151.7 now!) since most girls have already stopped growing at her age. As club time arrives, every player looks for their jump height during different evaluations. She gets the same height that Azumane, which is awesome since she’s much shorter than him.

Takeda-sensei arrives to the gym with big news, Kageyama has been invited to the national training camp. Tsukishima also received an invitation to a Miyagi first years training camp.

As for Hinata, she got an invitation to train with the Niiyama Girls’ High volleyball team.

The day comes, she’s standing outside the school looking nervous as she waits for the coach to lead her to the gym.

Already on the gym, she meets the team full of tall girls, guess that she will be the shortest of all again. They are all very nice with her and after meeting the whole team, all of them watch her previous matches. They start by looking at previous matches records of her playing, paying attention to her strong and weak points. They even talk about her uniform as the coach explains the differences between male and female bodies and give Shoyo one of their uniforms without number as the coach made a note to Takeda-sensei to start preparing a proper uniform again.

They put Hinata to practice receives with their libero and a girl with short black hair as the rest of the team spikes and the setter tosses to them.

Times flies and before she knows, it’s night time. They go to shower and then to sleep at the club room which is nice and big enough for some of them to sleep, the others were sleeping at the room next to them with the coach.

During the third day of practice, her hair tie broke at the moment she was preparing to receive. The ball hits her head and the other girls stop to look at her as she laughs trying to take her curly hair out of her face and failing at it.

“Maybe I need a haircut!” She says as she ties her hair back with a spare hairband.

The fifth day, the coach gives them a three-hour break after lunch and the girls go with Shoyo who is ready to cut her hair. The hairdresser looks during various minutes her mid back long hair and asks her many times if she’s sure to cut it to her a bit over her shoulders. The middle age woman actually looks in pain as she takes the scissors to the bright colored curls.

Days go by and before she knows, the last day is already here and she befriended the other girls. Because of a recommendation, Hinata is asked to stay two day with boys she doesn’t know well so she’s asked to go to the first years training camp. She enters the gym and looks around, seeing the first years along with some of the Shiratorizawa third years before walking to the coaches and asking what she would be doing. She’s kind of shocked when coach Washijo assigns her the role of a manager and ball girl. After noticing her reaction, the coach explains her that she has no worth without Kageyama and would not have invited her here if he wasn’t obligated to do so.

At the end, she takes into the role. This gives her little opportunity to practice what the girls taught her. She eventually notices that Hyakuzawa, the tall guy from Kakugawa, isn’t doing so well. She listens to him and eventually gives him some advice based of something she has noticed. Hyakuzawa pulls it off and high fives Hinata.

The boys continue to practice and Hinata gives what she can i advice to the one that are behind and asks others for tips and befriends most of the other first years until she’s asked to leave before sunset , the second day is almost the same and come back tomorrow morning. She stays with Yachi and have a sleep-over; morning comes and she's helping by doing her manager job. When it all comes to an end. she say goodbye not before having new phone numbers saved into her cellphone.

She thanks everyone before she exiting the school and starts to walk towards the nearest bus station since she left her bike at home.

A week later, they have a practice match against the Iron Wall of Dateko. The days before, Kageyama told the small middle blocker about ways to improve her jump into a ‘Baam’ jump.

Time passes, new year comes and the nationals come closer. Before she realizes she is at watching a video with her best plays at a nice inn at Tokyo.

As the video finishes, Suga takes her outside to talk. He looks serious and a bit nervous as he talks.

“Do you realize that ‘he’ may be at the stadium?”

Her expression changes at that comment. “I had thought of that, but it’s probable that we won’t.” She admits as she looks at the street light with great interest.” That manages to calm me.”

The senior smiles as he ruffles her now short hair. Kageyama exits the building ready to run, Hinata decides to go with him to tire herself a bit, Tsukishima follows them by bike since they might get lost if they go on their own.

When they arrive, Ukai hands her the modified uniform she will be using from now on. Black with orange details with the white ten and the same collar as the others, but tighter and the sleeves a little shorter, the other one is the same but orange.

The next morning, they wake up early. Hinata shares a nice talk with the owner as she checks her bag is not missing something, the lady is very kind and gives her an extra apple which she is deeply thankful and makes it clear.

Once they arrive, she’s just as exited. She quickly recognizes the Niiyama Girls’ and is shocked to know that Amanai is childhood friends with Tanaka. The girls talk for a while about how strange she feels to use the new uniform as Kageyama meets with some of the guys that attended the national training camp. She walks between the teams when she hears Bokuto-san. The girl gives him a bright smile as the boy calls her his number one student. He quickly notices her new style and gives it a thumbs up, helping her to calm down since she isn’t used to it yet. Not much later, Nekoma appears and both teams greet each other.

The aperture ceremony begins and the teams walk into the court as they are called.

Shimizu had to run off the stadium since they grabbed the wrong bag causing Yamaguchi and Shoyo to don’t have shoes. This had them both nervous but everything is good now if you ignore the ceiling being too bright. Karasuno faces Tsubakihara Academy in their first game, they told the team that before every game they will mention Hinata as the only girl of the team.

They start bad because of the lights, but they start getting used to it and win both sets. She actually feels bad for the number 14 when he serves the ball to his teammate head, she has been in the same situation. Once the match is over, they meet graduated students (she grabs her hands in an attempt to not show her nerves), watches the match of Nekoma and goes to buy a shirt, then to see Bokuto-san play along with Yamaguchi.

At first he doesn’t seem to be doing good, but after a time out and some words from Akaashi he gets better. When the game finishes Bokuto seems happy as he goes to meet Shoyo. As Yamaguchi and her walk around they meet a guy with white hair, they don’t talk but they have a stare contest (Hinata hid behind Yamaguchi). They stopped when Kageyama came and started to talk with Hoshiumi, he asked her about her position and height.

They went to see his team match next, it was awesome to see him jump and was no surprise that they won.

It was getting dawn when they left the stadium. Karasuno along with Nekoma where standing in front of each other, the aura between them bathing them with competitively was broken by the hurried steps of Shimizu and Yachi.

“We can’t find Hinata”

Hinata Shoyo was inside the building helping the Karasuno managers with the things they brought. She just wanted to help.

How did she get in this? Why couldn’t she have left the stadium before? She only looking for a bag and ended in empty hallway. Where is she right now in the stadium?

Most importantly, why is he standing in front of her?

Why Is he looking at her like that? Why can’t she move?!

“Hinata Shoyo” Yutaka Kono, the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, a hypocrite and her father, said with deep serious voice.

She couldn’t move, she needed to run. She can’t meet him. She needs to be away from him now.

“I’m quite surprised to meet you, especially at this place.” His eyes looked at her own, he was looking at her like a stain in a white carpet.

_Please stop. Stay away from me._

“I must admit that for people like you, this must be a very special event.” He placed a hand in her arm, she could feel his skin since she wasn’t wearing her jacket.

_Don’t touch me. Don’t hurt me._

“It’s a shame that we can’t talk now” He looks at his clock, a ring shining on his finger.

_Please, leave! I want to live!_

“Anyways…” He began to walk away, giving her a look of his back.

_Don’t say it, don’t you dare!_

“…I’m glad that I could meet…”

_Shut up! Don’t talk! Don’t you dare to say it! You have no right since you want me dead!_

“…my daughter.” He smiled as he walked towards the nearest exit.

Three minutes passes since the man left, since her father left. The man that made her childhood miserable by not being in it, the man that made her mom look like a slut, the man that was able to live peacefully while her mother worked so much, the one that wanted to kill her, that man just called her his daughter.

His daughter.

She felt sick.

She barely made it to the nearby bench before her legs collapsed, her feelings taking the best of her.

It was hard to breath, her chest hurt, her vision was blurry because of the tears that fell from her eyes.

He touched her.

She putted her hand at the same spot he had, it felt disgusting. It felt like that spot of skin was dissolving and rotting like a corpse would.

She was sobbing, she wanted to scream but she forced herself to not. She couldn’t do that. She won’t, to not scream was the only thing she needed to focus on.

Right, the team was probably waiting for her but her legs felt weak and shaking along with her whole body. If she tried to stand she will fall.

Nekoma and Karasuno jogged through the halls not very distanced from each other as they searched the stadium. Fukurodani joined the search not long ago and were a little behind the other teams.

They had been searching for almost ten minutes for the middle blocker but she didn’t appear or answer her phone since it was out of battery. Coach Ukai and Takeda-sensei where outside in case she appeared.

Faint sobbing could be heard from a small hallway.

The three teams run there and met the sunshine girls who wasn’t shining.

She was sitting in a bench, body curled to the front as he covered her face with her hands. Painful sobs could be heard as her body continued to shake.

Sugawara ran to the girl and crouched in front of her as he spoke with soft voice,

“Hinata, what happened?”

No response.

“Hinata, please answer”

Her answer was soft, barely a whisper. But they could still hear it.

“It was him…it was him.” She said only to start sobbing harder.


	3. 'It Was Him', Nekoma.

Kenma knew that Shoyo easily got lost, either on her own thoughts or it a psychical place. When he saw the Karasuno managers run to them with panicked expressions he got worried, apparently this time she had been lost for several minutes and they couldn’t find her.

The gray haired setter looked nervous as he quickly gave instructions to search for the short middle blocker. Kenma joined the search unit, the rest of the club joining seconds after him.

As they entered almost empty stadium, they meet with Fukurondani almost immediately. Akaashi realizes the tense atmosphere and ask, Bokuto already realized the missing head of orange hair.After a short explanation, the other teams decide to help out.

They looked at the entrance, hallways near the bathroom (the girls searched inside), hallways near the court or seats, they even tired calling her but the phone had run out of battery. They search for fifteen minutes with no results. They had arrived to a series of small corridors located near the end of the building. The three teams walked into the maze until faint sobs could be heard. Kenma jogged to the nearby hallway along with the other teams. When they arrived the view was painful to see.

Shoyo who was always bright and cheerful was curled forward, her face hidden under her hands that pressed against her legs. Her whole body was shaking as she choked on her own sobs. He almost questioned if that girl was really Shoyo since she looked so different to her usual sunshine self. Besides him, he could see Inuoka just as shocked as he watched the scene in front of him. Lev actually had his mouth open as he tried to presses what was happening.

Sugawara was the first to snap out of the shock and quickly ran to the girl.

“Hinata, what happened?”

Silence.

“Hinata, please answer”

In another place it could be impossible to hear her answer, due to the silence and with help of eco, her soft answer could be heard.

“It was him…it was him.” She said before her sobbing got harder.

Already on their way to the inn Nekoma was staying in, Kenma was worried. So worried that he didn’t even take his phone to play. This mood seemed to affect the whole team.

When they arrived to the gym to prepare their strategy against their next opponents, everyone was unusually quiet. Coach Nekomata noticed that and asked what happened. Kuroo too the role to explain the situation, the image of Shoyo looking so sad and had to be carried outside of the building by her teammates since her shaking legs couldn’t keep her standing.

The coach looked pensive for a while before giving them the instruction to be ready early tomorrow, in their current state with their mind in another place they wouldn’t pay attention.

Already in the room, Kenma tried to call Shoyo but her phone was still off, he even sent her some messages. Inuoka seemed to be doing the same as Lev tied to call her. The captain noticed his bad mood along with Yaku and Yamamoto. The last boy took his phone out of his pocket.

“I’m calling Ryu, Hinata still has her phone off.”

The two first years looked at him with stars on his eyes. Kenma walked closer to the teams’ ace as the phone rang.

“Tora.” The voice at the other side of the phone sounded tense and tired, even if it kept being friendly.

“Ryu” Yamamoto greeted. “The team wants to now how’s Hinata doing.”

As a sigh came from the phone, Tanaka started to speak. “Hinata calmed down, she’s so calm that she’s unnaturally quiet.” He sounded really worried as he spoke. “Suga seems to know what happened but he won’t tell us.”

“Could we go see her?” Inuoka interrupted. Everyone in the team looked surprised as the question.

“Let me ask the teacher.”

A few second later, the positive answer came.

“Who will be coming?”

Kenma, Inuoka and Kuroo lifted their hands. Lev looked like he wanted to go but Yaku had screamed at him about practicing receives earlier.

“Kenma, Kuroo and Inuoka” Yamamoto said after a minute. The others had to arrive home in minutes.

“Okay, I will tell Hinata, she seemed to cheer up a bit when we told her that Bokuto will be coming soon.”

They finished the call and the team said goodbye as the three guys called home to talk about their change of plans. On their way to the address Tanaka shared, they bought candy and cakes hoping that it could help cheer up Shoyo. They meet with Bokuto in the bus, the guy was holding a bag full of chips and had two bottles of juice in his backpack.

Minutes later the four of them arrived to the simple place Karasuno where staying, Hinata was outside waiting for them with a small kind smile.

Bokuto, who thankfully had handed his bags to Kuroo and Inuoka, wrapped the small player in a tight hug.

“Hello!” Shoyo said smiling. She still sounded a bit upset.

The Nekoma players also gave the girl a hug and talked for a while outside until an older woman told them to get inside because they will get sick with the cold air.

They were all sitting in one of the rooms sharing the food the guys brought and some the lady offered them. The teachers were talking to the owners of the place about many things. Hinata seemed in a better mood, still not talking much but saying a comment time to time.

Tsukishima looked like he had enough with not knowing the cause of the other middle blocker mysterious breakdown.

“Shrimp, who is ‘he’” He looked between amused, curious and annoyed. 

“Tsukishima!” Daichi told him, knowing that the guy would make fun Hinata.

“I was actually thinking of telling you all.” The girl said as the tied her hair in a low ponytail. Sugawara, who was sitting beside the girl, looked at her surprised.

“Are you sure? Nobody here should make you feel pressured to talk!”

“It’s fine.” She said looking slightly nervous. “I trust everyone in the room.” She took a deep breath and looked at her hands that were placed in the table.

“Today I met my father.”

Everyone looked shocked.


	4. 'It Was Him', Fukurodani.

Bokuto was walking through the hallways with the rest of the team besides him, the managers had already left the building and where in their ways to their houses to prepare everything they may need for tomorrow match. He was chatting with Konoha when they met Karasuno and Nekoma, both teams looking particularly worried. Akaashi noticed the tense atmosphere surrounding the team.

  
‘Wait, where was Hinata?’ The absence of the head full of orange hair was very notorious.

  
Yaku-san quickly explained that the Karasuno player was missing and that they were looking for her, Fukurodani joined the search as soon as they heard about it.

They searched everywhere, from the seats to the court and the bathrooms, even the stairs and behind the pillars and almost every hallway. Man, he even looked under the tables. They were running out of options and girl haven appeared. They approached to a part of the building that was a maze of hallways, they searched some of them before the whole group froze over the sound of someone crying.

They run and already there he felt his heart squeeze at the view of the bright girl sobbing her heart out. Everyone froze, Akaashi (who was never shy to comment about something or give his opinion, always being polite) looked lost, Komi (who was loud and energetic) looked shocked, the others didn’t look much different.

Sugawara, Karasunos’ vice-captain, was the first to move and kneeled in front of her and talked to her in calm voice.

  
“Hinata, what happened?”  
Her body jumped slightly at the sudden voice.

  
“Hinata, please answer”

  
“It was him…it was him.” The girl sobbed into her hands, her voice was barely heard.

The memory of Hinata falling into the ground as she tried to stand up only for the rest to realize that her legs where shaking was too much for him, he was worried. The team meeting ended quickly and took his phone out and tried to call his student.

  
Apparently, her phone was still out of battery. After a few more tries, he gave up and called the captain.

  
He didn’t answer at the first try, but he kept trying until he answered at the fourth try.

  
“Sawamura, hey!” Bokuto said after the other captain answered.

  
“Bokuto, what happened?” His voice sounded tired even if he tried to sound more cheerful.

  
“How’s Hinata?” His voice was unusually calm.

A sigh could be heard at the other side of the phone.

  
“She has been staring at the celling for almost ten minutes now, Tanaka and Nishinoya tried to talk to her but she just keeps looking at the celling.”

  
“Could I go over there?” The words left his mouth before he even thought of what he was doing.

  
“That could cheer her up, let me ask the teacher.” About a minute later, the answer came. “I’ll send you the address.”

Minutes later, Bokuto finds himself with a bag full of food and something to drink in his way there. Maybe food would cheer his student! Halfway through the ride, three cats joined into the visit with some candy and cakes.

Once there, they were received by the orange haired girl on the door. Bokuto being Bokuto, ran to her and gave her a tight hug that lifted the girl from the sidewalk.

  
“Hello!” The kind voice of the girls was enough to make everyone feel better, she was better.

  
A lady came from inside and told them to go inside and protect themselves from the cold.

They were all sitting around a table with the food they brought (Hinata had the most because it they bought some especially for her and some to share) and some more they were offered by the owners.

  
They were talking about random things, even if the small crow kept quiet most of the time.

  
“Shrimp, who is ‘he’” Tsukishima asked out of nowhere. The room fell quiet for a second before the team captain called him out.

  
“I was actually thinking of telling you all.” The whole room looked at the girls who was playing with her hands after tying her hair. The vice-captain asked her if she was sure of it. She said it was fine since she trusted everyone in the room.

  
“Today I met my father.”

  
And the room fell quiet.

  
“Are you okay?” Azumane asked looking nervous. “Did he did something to you?”

  
“Apart of having the nerve of calling me ‘his daughter’ after neglecting me and his relationship with my mother and me, I’m fine.” She gave the ace a shy smile.  
She took a deep breath.

“I can’t say too much, but please let me tell you something.” Her tone and face where serious.

  
Everyone looked each other before nodding in Hinatas’ way. “Please don’t interrupt me or I’m going to regret telling you all.”

  
They stay quiet as Hinata talks about her early years of life, mixing situations she lived with how she felt. The mentions of bullying in kindergarten and early years of elementary school, kids telling her that she will end like her mom and parents badmouthing her mom. She even talks about an occasion when one of her classmates’ dad asked her mom how much she charged for night.

  
“Not short after, my stepfather comes into the picture and was the only male I would trust for a while until I changed school and met Koji and Izumi. Anyway, back to my biological father, I’m basically a copy of him except for my hair color and eye shape, aside from the fact that I’m a girl. Also, that’s the reason I covered my eyes at the beginning of the year, I didn’t like them.”

  
Many ‘Ooooos’ and ‘Aaaahs’ where said by the other Karasuno players, besides Sugawara that apparently new everything.

  
“Anyway, after what happened today and the first years of school, I prefer having my step father with me.” She says as she lifts her glass with apple juice. “I can’t imagine living as the daughter of a well-known politician.” Bokuto’s eyes go wide and he sees others do the same, even Hinata does that.

  
“I shouldn’t have said that.”


	5. 'It Was Him', Karasuno.

He knew that Hinata had a secret, but this was too much.

From the moment they found her, it was hard to look at her while she cried like this. Even if Yamaguchi wasn’t close to her, it hurt him to see Hinata like that.

On the ride back was tense, the short middle blocker was curled in her seat. They could have been the whole ride awake if it wasn’t because they were very tired.

When they arrived, Yachi and Shimizu took the girl to take a bath with them.

The next time he saw her was during the meeting for tomorrow s match against Inarizaki (since their uniforms were also black, Karasuno will be using the orange ones), during the talk Hinata seemed a bit more exited.

After that, the girl laid down looking at the celling and kept quiet during a long time.

Daichi got a phone call and left the room, when he came back he told Hinata that Bokuto will be coming in some minutes. This caused the girl eyes to shine and smile, but didn’t move from her position.

Minutes after, Tanakas’ phone started to sound, he also left and came back with the news that Kenma, Inuoka and Kuroo were also coming. These time she ran outside to wait for them, Sugawara ran after her as he told the girl to wore a jacket since it was cold outside.

Minutes later, the whole team was sitting in one of the rooms while eating and talking (Tsukki was just eating and ignored everyone who tried to talk to him while Kozume ate and played on his phone, occasionally quitting his eyes from the screen to check on his female friend).

“Shrimp, who is ‘he’”. His childhood friend asked, leaving the whole room looking at him while Dachi told him to don’t ask things like that. Yamaguchi also wanted to know but he didn’t ask in case he touched something he shouldn’t.

The girl confessed that she was thinking of telling them since she trusted everyone in the room.

“Hinata, are you sure of that?” The vice-captain asked.

‘So he knows.’ He had suspicions of him already knowing since the moment Hinata said ‘It was him’ but this confirmed it.

After that, she told them everything to them. The story of her father who was engaged to another woman and how he left her mom after she told him she was pregnant, the difficult first years of her mother having to take care of daughter, the house and working, the bulling she was victim of because she didn’t have a father and the badmouthing her mother suffered because she was a single mom. How that caused her to develop an uneasy feeling around men while her father did what he wanted.

She talked a bit about her stepfather, the only men she could trust before becoming friends with the two guys who went to watch the final against Shiratorizawa. Hinata even talked about how she hated her eyes since they were the same color from her fathers’ and other similarities she shared with them but she preferred her life how it was.

“I can’t imagine living as the daughter of a well-known politician.” The room freezes as Hinata realizes what she said.

It takes him a moment to process the information, the same occurs with the others. They all jump from their places while Hinata hid behind the senior setter.

“I shouldn’t have said that.”

The fact that Hinata, the same girl that jumped over the net to score a point at volleyball matches, was the illegitimate daughter of a well-known political figure who stated in a letter years ago that he will kill his child if they appeared in his life.

Who could have thought of that?

Sugawara had to calm everyone down, it took him some minutes to make everyone shut up and sit again. During the process, Hinata’s arm appeared a couple of times from behind the setter to get a cookie during all the process.

After the whole story their decoy was cheerful again, but these time she looked more relaxed.

They spent the rest of the night making bad jokes about politicians because one was a bastard that hurt Hinata and her mom.

(“I’m going to go fight him when we find out who he is”.

“Tanaka, no”. Ennoshita said.

“Tanaka, yes” Nishinoya said. “He hurt our precious kouhai.”

“Can we join?”

“Bokuto, Kuroo; please hit him for me.”

“Even you, Kenma?!”

“Yes.”

“Suga, please stop them”

“Why?”)

They stayed talking for hours, before they knew it was time for Kuroo and Kenma to leave. They both were hugged by a happy Hinata and left after being asked to not share what they listened.

Minutes later, Bokuto also left and Hinata also hugged him.

They cleaned the room and left to sleep since tomorrow they were playing against a strong team.

They arrived the next day without much problem, the team looked really calm. Outside the building they met with Nekoma and a good part of team that didn’t go yesterday decided to hug Hinata as a way to comfort her. Fukurodani appeared at that moment and their captain decided to also give a hug to the sunshine player.

The teams walked together to the entrance when they met with the double of security wards that have been yesterday. Sadly, it was obvious who did it and why.

The ones who had been at their meeting tensed and looked at Shoyo, the girl looked as cheerful as usual.

_‘She knows how to act as usual in these situations.’_

The situation looked the same inside, security guards where everywhere.

Shaking his head, he set his thought in one way, they had a match against one of the better schools.

Before the official warm up, Hinata and Kageyama were trying to keep the ball in the air. Her mind was in another place, stuck between the ‘Baam’ jump and the fact that she actually told her teammates and friends about her father.

These thoughts may be the cause that the ball landed on her face.

After that Kageyama gave her the usual insult, another voice came in.

Miya Atsumu greeted the Karasuno setter and started a short talk.

Hinata did the best she could to hide the uncomfortable feeling under her skin while hugging the ball. 

Yachi came running to them, telling them that the match was on the second set. The girl handed her an orange shirt which she grabbed and ran to the nearest bathroom to change.

She liked the orange shirt with the completely black shorts (she didn’t have orange shorts because of budget, the orange fabric was more expensive that the black one).

She arrived with the rest of the team when they were already in their completely orange uniforms and Noya in black.

Kageyama and Tsukishima didn’t look good in orange, actually, everyone looked weird in orange. Noya looked great in black!

The other team had a freaking orchestra, cheerleaders and fan girls. They could barely hear Daichi and Hinata, absolutely loving music, was analyzing the structure of the played song.

After the warm up, the announcement of Shoyo being a girl playing at the male team and the same special talk of yesterday came, she bowed and the match began.

Inarizaki scored, then Karasuno got a point because the ball landed outside the court, Inarizaki got a point and Hinata forgot to hit the ball.

_Great!_

Could she hide in a hole and die?

Please?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next, Inarizaki V/S Karasuno and more since I already read the manga.


	6. Nationals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being trapped in light only to be consumed by darkness again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, I'm back!

Inarizaki was a strong team.

The match was difficult, the huge band and the rest of cheers was an even bigger distraction.

At the beginning Shoyo was obviously out of herself, her body was not moving like she wanted it to do qned making her slower that the rest. It wasn’t until she realized she was in front of the number 2 of the other team that her body decided to move in a decent way.

“Ah!” Was what she said before she started to run horizontally to the net. Hinata jumped sideways and scored. ‘I need to get back to normal or we will lose’.

To get back to normal, Shoyo decided to make fun of Kageyama as he did a not so good serve.

“What’s wrong Kageyama?” She said in a playful voice. “A little of music distracts you from serving?”  
She skipped as the boy tires to kick her.

“Then try doing it yourself! And we lost a point!”

They took a point from Inarizaki but Tanaka’s serve was caught in the net.

The rivals cheer section had two strategies to distract them while serving, booing at them and, the most troublesome, manipulating the rhythm. When Saeko and the rest of the new Karasuno cheer team arrived it all went back to normal and they avoided to lose immediately by missing all serves.

It was also a huge help to calm Hinata from the fact that she just met her biological father yesterday evening, besides this the twins where crazy good to the point where they managed to copy the weird quick.

“Tanaka-san, the taiko drums of your sister are so cool!”

The arrival of the new Karasuno cheer team made things go smoothly for a short time, but the serves from Miya Atsumu started to became a trouble to Nishinoya.

The game continued, Shoyo was back inside the court with instruction from the coach about her new task: block Miya Osamu. The first bock was really good, managing to earn a point for Karasuno. She couldn’t even touch the second spike and completely lost in the net.

When Karasuno made it to the 19 points the twins started arguing, by the volume of their voices it was easy to hear what they were saying and she wasn’t trying to overhear the conversation. A block should be scary…

Hinata Shoyo was the opposite of scary! What one-person blocks had she encountered that where scar?

Dateko? They usually blocked with two players. Inuoka? No. Lev? No. Kindaichi? No. Tendo? No. Kuroo? No. Hyakuzawa? No.

Matsukawa…yes!

Hinata forced number 11 to hit a straight, were Nishinoya received it and Daichi scored.

She really hated that block but it worked really good against rivals.

For her, the best part of the match was when she managed to receive a spike perfectly.

The whole stadium was screaming as the last point was made with a block from herself and Kageyama.

It was almost lucky that at the end they managed to win this match. When both teams where leaving the court, Miya Atsumu talked to her.

“I’ll toss to ya one of this days.” She was too tired to answer, so she just watched him walk away and fight with his twin brother.

Shoyo went to change her clothes with Kiyoko and Yachi, they were talking about the outcome of the match after being asked to walk with them in case she met with her ‘lame excuse of a father.’ Tanaka’s words, not hers.

This day ended well and Karasuno left without any trouble.

That night they watched their match in TV and had a good time in general. She took a bath with the girls and before going to bed she talked to Kageyama about their game against Nekoma tomorrow.

“Kenma doesn’t care about winning or losing, but I will defeat Kenma!”

They walked inside the stadium for the third day, before the match began there were already people inside waiting for the Battle at The Garbage Dump.

Both teams, crows in black and cats in red, were ready to walk into the court.

“We’re gonna eat you alive!” Screamed the captains and the game began.

The rally for the first point was intense, really fast. It came to an end with Karasuno’s weird attack. They even left behind the broadcast.

“It’s match where there’s no ‘second chances’, Kenma!”

In general, the whole match was intense and eventful.

Only during the first set they watched Kenma moving fast, serve and block from Yamaguchi and Tsukishima and Karasuno’s communication error gives Nekoma the first set.

“Shoyo, stay interesting” Kenma says to her after the first point of the second set that makes her jump away from the boy, feeling something was going to happened.

The game continues and they are tired, Tanaka and Asahi thing that they were playing a five set game even if they are at the beginning of the second one; Nekoma sure knows how to tire their opponents.

Some points later, they figure out Nekoma’s strategy but Hinata is already caught in a birdcage.

They continue and frustration is written all over her face, as much as she jumps, moves and runs she can´t break the strong cage. It continues until Kageyama sets her a high ball and she’s ready to jump to free herself from her confinement, it was a good try but it failed. At least Hinata is able to show her skills again.

Inuoka gets in to court after the second try of Karasunos’ open attack, this one actually works.

At the end, they win the second set and it’s all over in the next one. This is also the first set they have won against Nekoma so they don’t miss to celebrate.

Half way through the third set, Hinata does a feint. Kenma tries to save it but fails. He falls to the floor and Kuroo comes to see his friend.

“Oi, Kenma, are you alright? Did you injure yourself?”

“This is fun…” He admits as everyone in the court freezes. Shoyo smiles, remembering her promise to make Kenma enjoy volleyball.

She jumps and screams in joy, not really caring of using more energy in doing this celebration or if it wins her some strange looks.

The match continues, Lev crashes against Kenma’s side when they block.

“You idiot!! The ball hasn’t dropped yet!!” The setter yells at the other male when he goes to apologize.

The rally goes on for a while until due to the sweat covering the ball it slips from Nekoma’s setter.

Shoyo turns around, ready to play for another point, and finds out that that was the last point.

Karasuno won the match.

“Let’s do this again next year!” She says to Kenma when they are leaving the court.

“Yeah, let’s do it.” He smiles.

They exit to see Fukurodani’s match end.

After the winner last point, Bokuto hugs the third years from Nekoma.

“Bokuto-san, your clean clean straights are badass!” Shoyo jumps, still high in energy from their win against their fated rivals.

“Thanks, my little disciple!”

“Shoyo, stop jumping” A familiar voice says behind her as hands land in her shoulders, slightly pushing her down. “You have another match for today.”

“Hayate!” She greets her stepfather with a hug. “Wait, why are you here?”

“Your mom couldn’t come because she had work so I came.”

“Yeah, but why? And don’t you have work?”

“Your teacher called so I came, the school let me free for the week.”

Shoyo and Hayate watched the next matches and ate lunch together.

Kageyama joined when they walked besides the courts to see the end of the game of Kamomedai vs. Takagiyama. The first team was going to be their next opponent.

Hoshiumi, a boy with white hair that looked like feathers, approached her. “I saw your second and third round matches. Impressive.” He stopped in front her.

“Now, let’s decide which one of us is the true ‘Little Giant’ of today.”

Years ago, in this situation, she would have probably hidden behind Hayate or just run away. She admits that her joining a male volleyball team actually helped her in interactions with men; how her extreme fear, disgust or pure disgust towards males had almost disappeared in this months and how she was now standing in Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium to play against other male teams. If she ignored the meeting with her biological father it would have all been perfect; so with a kind smile, she looked at the boy.

“Okay.”

Higurami, if she remembered right, took Hoshiumi back with their team while she went to with the rest of Karasuno to talk about their match against Kamomedai, the team that was a mix of Dateko blocks plus a national caliber ace. This was going great in high levels of nervousness, or maybe, the lack of them.

When a team reunion was called, Hayate decided to stick with Nekoma who were in seats, preparing to see the match of Karasuno.

Daichi gave them words of encouragement, they were a national top eight team. Higher than anyone would have expected from a raising ex powerhouse team in only a year.

Along with Kiyoko and Yachi, she went to change into the orange volleyball jersey before going to see the other matches before theirs.

When Karasuno entered the court, Saeko called her. The original Little Giant was at the stadium.

Her first reaction was to stay still, the second was to hide behind the nearest person and finally was to go talk to him.

Udai Tenma was a long haired man and she probably reached his chin, he also dropped volleyball after graduating high school.

This confused her, not the fact that he stopped playing, but when she went to reunite with the rest of the team she wondered why she wasn’t disappointed.

The next big event of the day is the match of Fukurodani V/S Mujinazaka, a top 3 ace V/S a top 5 ace. She wished she would see the whole match, tiem passed and they had to play theirs.

The match against Kamomedai began after the typical announcement of Hinata playing with the boys and both teams wishing for a good game. The first point went to Karasuno, Hinata jumped and passed over the two-meter middle blocker. After this, Shoyo looked at said player.

“Karasuno High school’s first year, Hinata Shoyo! Pleasure to meet you!”

After an incredible spike from Hoshiumi that jumps over the blockers they meet an also incredible middle blocker, “The Immovable Higurami”. He blocks Tanaka, and then proceeds to make both HInata and Kageyama angry at him.

How does that guy dare to say that their attacks are useless because he will equally block them?!

The match continues and she, Hinata Shoyo, screams while celebrating that Tsukishima blocked Hoshiumi. Immediately she feels something is kind of off, her throat kinds of really hurts. Like a little over she is comfortable is. Shoyo quickly associated to all the screaming she has done today during the match against Nekoma, watching her mentor being really cool in the court, meeting the Little Giant and know cheering in and out the court.

Hinata quickly forgets about the pain as she´s back into the court. The game continues, she is switched with Yamaguchi when it’s time to serve; sadly, it was out. The game continues and they lose the first set.

As they change sides of the court, her mind goes white for a second. She is able to listen everything surrounding her but more mixed, unable to distinguish one from another. It’s like being underwater. Her senses go back to normal only to hear Sugawara compare her with Tsukishima.

The second set begins and Asahi starts to feel pressured as all of his attacks and even defense are failing. The ace scores a new point by doing a soft touch that leaves Karasuno’s captain hurting after Azumane high-fived him with a lot of strength.

Even with that amazing play, it’s easy to spot that the ace is depressed in his own bat thought of ‘What would have happened if…’ That kind of thought are self-destructing, Hinata knows. Once she was unable to leave the house in almost two weeks thanks to them, not attending school and forcing her mom to stay by her side.

‘What would happen if her father was outside her school or the hospital her mom works?’ Was what kept her mind full of fear.

‘What would have happened if her mom and her left the house?’ Hinata Shoyo was seven years-old. ‘Would they still be together with Hayate and Natsu?’

The worst question was when she asked herself that would have happened if she wasn’t born. ‘Would mom be happier without having to worry about her?’ She actually asked when Natsu was asleep, Shoyo was caught in a tight hug from both her mom and Hayate. Both of them cried as they told her how important she was.

“Don’t say that, I can’t imagine my life without you.” Was what her mom said.

“You are a really strong girl; you bring so much happiness.” Was what Hayate said.

Shoyo hugged both of them as she cried.

The whistle that marked the end of the time out woke her from her memories, she shook them away and proceeded to continue playing.

It was something awesome. Hinata jumps with the one that does ‘Baam’, Kageyama send the ball. A Baam jump in minus tempo, many of them looked amazed like her as she turned to look at the setter

“The ball came!” Hinata grabbed his hand between hers. “Do you have the hands of God?!”

Kageyama quickly shoved her hand of, instead of getting offended she went with Tanaka who was exited to congratulate her. She didn’t see the boy looking at her, he had a confused look as the girl talked with the senior.

The next point goes to Karasuno and Hinata is going great, her reflex are on top shape and her body does exactly what she wants to do. The last point of the set is made by Hoshiumi who attempted to do a block out, only to Tsukishima to dodge it and the all going outside the court. This gives Karasuno the second set.

Hinata Shoyo does not understand what is happening.

Moment ago she was flying in the air, she spiked the ball from the back. She received a spike from the two-meter tall guy, immediately stood up and went to attack, Hinata was having so much fun even if she was tired.

So why is she lying in the floor?

She was going to hold Tanaka’s hand to stand up and she must have slipped.

Hinata lifts her body from the cold floor and she immediately starts shaking before she could even stand up, she falls back and in sitting while everyone looking the match had her eyes on her. She’s confused, why is she shaking and what is happening? Her throat hurts so much she feels like it is burning.

Kageyama comes with the answer, a fever. Daichi and Tanaka help her up from her sitting position at the middle of the court to take her to sit in the bench. Kyoko takes a thermometer as Takeda-sensei puts his hand in her forehead. Is normal for her to find in a bit too cold?

Her team talks but she barely understands them, she manages to hear about how the shock because the unwanted meeting after the first day may be the cause of her getting sick, everyone gets quiet with the beep from the thermometer.

It read 39.1°C.

Hinata’s mom in a nurse, she knows this is too high, dangerous if not taken care of properly and will get worse if she keeps forcing herself to continue. Still, Hinata Shoyo wants to continue playing, she’s not injured and still can jump and run and do the same things she did before.

She needs to show him that she’s fine without him, she is not defeated by a simple fever, Hinata Shoyo was not affected by the meeting.

She stands up and makes his known to the teacher and the coach only for Takeda- sensei to push her back into siting as he tells her that he cannot allow her to continue playing.

It’s obvious that she is not happy with that answer.

“I know that for you each match is really important; you didn’t get to play much in middle school so you get twice the joy to be able to stand in the court.” Takeda-sensei grabbed her hands. “You are also proving yourself, I’m sure that makes things even more frustrating than they already are.”

“Remember this feeling. There will surely be times in your life when you will feel this way again. There will come a time when there's nothing you can do. Whenever that happens, pay attention and etch it into your mind. You said you were going to win the gold medal someday. And not just one. And now, you know that there are walls that you can't overcome with reckless effort and the wish of proving people wrong. When that time comes, what you need, is knowledge, logic, and thought. Hinata-san, this moment, right now, is also volleyball. Think about how to win. “

Shoyo looked up from where the teacher was talking to her. Outside of the court she could see Yachi standing near the exit.

“Your body will surely grow, but in a sport where you compete across a tall net, in the volleyball world- where 190cm is considered small, you will surely always be little. You need to understand that you will get fewer chances than others, you have already had fewer chances than other people. And you need to grasp those chances while making sure that you don't let any of them slip away from you. You... you of all people should always be in peak condition so that you can always be on the front line when you do get a chance."

She broke down crying, apologizing.

“I´m sorry.” She cried. “But could you please act like it was all caused by over-working myself?”

Yamaguchi helped her stand up as her teammates started to either try to cheer her up and saying to leave it to them or making fun of her for getting sick like she was a little kid, just like she requested.

“I’ll be the one to stand on the court the longest.” Kageyama says to her, quoting what she said when thei first met. “I win this time too.”

Shoyo looks at him and she takes the tears off her eyes, now looking determinate to not make this mistake again.

Takeda-sensei and Yamaguchi walk her to Yachi who is now waiting with Hayate standing beside her, he looks worried but not surprised.

Shoyo goes to ask him why isn’t he surprise her when a male voice calls her from the court.

“HINATA SHOYO!” It’s Hoshiumi, he stands in the court, looking at her. “I'LL BE WAITING FOR YOU!"

Shoyo looks at him and bows as a thanks, an apology and a goodbye.

Even after getting sick and taken out of the game, Shoyo is focused in the game.

She just got finishes getting changed into three layers of dry clothes and two scarfs, one is hers and the other from Hayate, the man stands wearing a simple coat since he gave Shoyo the sweater he was wearing before. Hinata has her mind in the court, wishing to see what is happening.

As she grabs the Karasuno Volleyball Club jacket she sees Kenma walking toward her. 

“Kenma?”

“I came to cheer a friend.” She feels like crying again, she worried her friends.

“Do you have a way I can watch the game?”

“Yes.” Kenma pulls out from his back, holding a tablet. “I came to lend you this.”

Shoyo looks at his friend and smiles, almost crying. “Thanks.”

Hinata stand outside the building besides Yachi and Shimada-san while her step-dad gets his car. Her eyes are glued to the screen as she sees Karasuno play.

Her mind is in the court and they have to remind her to get inside the car. She is analyzing what is happening in the court and tells it to Yachi, who takes notes.

She watches as Tsukishima falls from what she later finds out was a leg cramp.

Hinata Shoyo is at the hospital when she sees the ball fall in Karasuno’s side, ending the game.

That night she sits in her futon, looking outside the window to the bright light of the capital.

Whit a smile, both sad and happy, she critiques her current abilities and thinks:

“What should I do to get better?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for not posting before. Being infornt of a screen for too much time makes me sick :')

**Author's Note:**

> In case you didn't know, the man from the title is the father
> 
> If you had to rate this from 1 to 10, what score would you give to this?
> 
> Fun fact: my mom thouht I was doing school work.


End file.
